These Moments InBetween
by KouenTaisa
Summary: Even if Piccolo wouldn't acknowledge it out loud, Goten had been right. He would've let go. He always did. Short drabbles about the bond between one Son Gohan and Piccolo.
1. Special

Author: This is the first thing that I have written in a very, very long time, besides some drabbles I am trying to coerce out of my brain for Grey's Anatomy. This was inspired by a video I was making for DBZ, and future brought to fruition by one MindoftheChildishlyNaive, who read over this and helped me improve. She herself has some awesome Dragonball Z drabbles, so you should look her up and check them out.

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**These Moments In-Between**

_Even if Piccolo wouldn't acknowledge it out loud, Goten had been right. He would've let go. He always did. _

_---  
_

Gohan was special.

He had to be, of course, to make someone as cold as Piccolo sacrifice himself time and time again. Of course, the would be Demon King had never given it as much thought as he did that single moment after his hand released Goten's arm and the second son of his former rival disappeared in a streak of yellow.

Piccolo called out after the boy, but in his mind's eye it wasn't Goten he was yelling at. It was Gohan, but then again... it wasn't. Gohan had never had a Trunks. He had never had a best friend his age. He had always been surrounded by adults, and he grew up way too fast.

The first time he had ever had to defend the earth, he had only been six and a half years old. He was special, and it was something in that boy's innocent smile that had kept Piccolo around. Even now, when Gohan was in his teenage years, Piccolo was still captured by everything that was Gohan.

So as he let Goten go, he could feel Gohan's ki disappear from his senses.

Even if he wouldn't acknowledge it out loud, Goten had been right. Piccolo would've let go of Gohan. Even if he didn't want to, he always did.


	2. Care

_---_

_Don't cry Gohan. You've become much stronger. Take care. _

_---  
_

Piccolo was special.

He had to be, of course, because he had taken Gohan in and become just like a father to the half-saiyan boy. He had trained him, and scarified himself for the boy more than once. Gohan could barely remember the time when he had been afraid of Piccolo. All of those memories, those emotions, were replaced in a single years time.

Gohan looked up to Piccolo, because he had changed. What Gohan didn't know was that he was the reason for that change. As a child, his innocence had been one of the main factors that caused Piccolo to change. Even when it would seem as though the world was falling down around him, Gohan's innocence endured, and somehow... that changed the Namekian with a heart of ice into someone different.

In that single moment before the Earth exploded, Gohan felt Piccolo beside him. He closed his eyes and he felt the familiar weight of a hand on his shoulder and the chuckle that would forever be burned into his memory. However, when he opened his eyes, the illusion was gone and tears were starting to make their way down his cheeks.

He want to scream and blame the world for his loss. He wanted to be right there at Piccolo's side, because no one deserved to die alone.

"Take care, Gohan."

Even as he felt his heart breaking, his innocence endured, because he had changed Piccolo and Piccolo had undoubtedly changed him.


	3. Feelings

_---_

_I've never had real feelings about anyone before. _

_---  
_

He had a weakness. Piccolo, former Demon King, and half of Earth's Guardian, had a single weakness. It hadn't been this way the first time. He'd been strong with no weakness. No detectable area that would bring his downfall. He had simply lost to Goku. After being reincarnated, he promised himself that he would not fall to Son Goku again, and he didn't.

It was the small, five and half year old Son Gohan that captured his heart. At first, Piccolo tried to resent the small boy. He tried to hate him and everything that he stood for, because after all, the boy was the son of his enemy. All it took was a year for Piccolo to fall... and he fell hard. The moment that he realized he cared for Gohan, that single moment, took his life away.

Gohan had never been so upset, but Piccolo had never felt more at rest than in that moment when he was consumed by Nappa's blast.


	4. Author Note

Author Note:

Not an update, not yet. Since this is a DBZ story, I thought that I would first put this here and then in my profile. Me and a fellow writer, Motcn, are going to co-write a DBZ story entitled "A Cold World". It will consist of two to three parts, and take place in a different universe/timeline.

I won't go into too much here, just that you can find that, and perhaps other stories co-written by us, at

http://fanfiction dot net /~bottleshock

So please check us out and look for more updates soon.

- KouTai


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